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By Fatu Tauafiafi APIA, Samoa (Samoa Observer, Nov. 30, 2009) - Technical Advisor and former Australian international, Owen Finegan left Manu Samoa before the team’s game against Italy last Saturday, sources within the Samoa Rugby Union have revealed.

"He just got up and left," an official, who is not authorized to give information, told the Samoa Observer.

The team’s video analyst, Dan MacFarlane also left.

Finegan and MacFarlane are both from the ACT Brumbies Super 14 franchise.

Attempts to get comment from the Samoa Rugby Union’s officials in Europe were unsuccessful.

"We have received no information from Europe except that Owen Finegan has made his own travel arrangements," said an official at the SRU’s Malifa office.

The Manu Samoa played its last game of its tour of Europe against Italy on Saturday morning. They lost 24-6.

HONIARA, Solomon Islands (Solomon Times, Nov. 30, 2009) – In the Solomon Islands, Solomon Airlines confirmed last week that it has signed a historic agreement to bring a Dash8 aircraft into its Domestic operation from the 7th December and will remain part of its fleet for a longer term.

This aircraft will be leased from Airlines PNG [Papua New Guinea], a privately listed company on the PNG Stock Exchange which was previously owned by the Wild family, long time residents in PNG since the early 50's.

The lease is for a period two (2) years with a further option of two further years subject to the continued expansion of capacity to be equally met by the traffic demand internally.

"The aircraft will give Solomon Airlines the added capacity required to meet the growing trends indicated on its Domestic route and will allow for future capacity expansion to handle larger volumes of Tourism expected in the coming years," an...

SUVA, Fiji (Fijilive, Nov. 30, 2009) - Fiji has not ruled out moving for the suspension of the entire Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER) if signatories to it do not respond "in good faith" to its stated intention to suspend Part 2 of the Agreement.

This was revealed this weekend by state solicitor Luke Daunivalu, who said Government had taken steps to protect Fiji’s interest in light of continuing discussions and negotiations - minus Fiji - by parties to PACER and its subset PACER-Plus.

He was speaking at the 11th Attorney General’s conference held at the Warwick this weekend.

Fiji remains a suspended member of the Pacific Islands Forum and as such cannot participate in any Forum-related meetings or negotiations.

It had tried unsuccessfully to invoke Article 15 of the PACER treaty, which dealt with dispute resolution and required the response "in good faith" of PACER parties.

HONIARA, Solomon Islands (Solomon Star, Nov. 30, 2009) – Twenty-five Solomon Islands students will fly to Cuba next week to train as doctors, accompanied by two health officials, thanks to about SB$107,000 [US$13,000] paid by the Iran government for their travel costs.

The money was transmitted earlier this month by the Iranian embassy in Canberra via the Australian and New Zealand Bank branch in Honiara, the Solomons capital.

But ANZ, which acts as the Solomon Islands government's bank, sent it back, said a bank spokesman, "as part of ANZ's economic and trade sanctions policy", which prevents remittances or transactions involving Iran, Sudan, Syria, North Korea, Burma or Cuba. The standoff was resolved by the Iranian embassy giving the Solomons high commission in Canberra the aid directly, enabling the latter to use it to pay in Australia for the students' travel.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (RNZI, Nov. 30, 2009) - A democracy Member of Parliament in Tonga says the Government should immediately endorse a report on democratic reforms to ensure there is not more violence in the country.

Akilisi Pohiva and his co-chair on the People’s Committee for Political Reform, fellow MP Uliti Uata, say, despite not agreeing with all of it, they are willing to accept the Constitutional and Electoral Commission’s report, and so should the Government.

The MPs say it’s important every sector of society embraces the report in full so that the reform process remains peaceful.

They say it would also be a token of respect to King George Tupou V for his role as the architect of peaceful political change.

The two MPs say if the reforms are not supported there could be more violence, such as the riots of three years ago, which they say, erupted because of the opposition of the Government...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (RNZI, Nov. 30, 2009) - A New Zealand-based non-government organization says its encouraging that a 10 billion dollar US fund to help developing countries adapt to climate change has been announced.

Commonwealth leaders say ten percent of the Copenhagen Launch Fund should be earmarked for small island states and low lying coastal states.

But he says the amounts being talked about are grossly inadequate for the scale of damage being caused by climate change.

"I guess the fact that finally they are starting to talk amounts of money is a good thing, but there’s a long way to go before the kinds of funding that are being discussed are anywhere near what’s needed."

Barry Coates says its disappointing Commonwealth leaders could not agree on targets to reduce...

By Fatu Tauafiafi APIA, Samoa (Samoa Observer, Nov. 30, 2009) - Technical Advisor and former Australian international, Owen Finegan left Manu Samoa before the team’s game against Italy last Saturday, sources within the Samoa Rugby Union have revealed.

"He just got up and left," an official, who is not authorized to give information, told the Samoa Observer.

The team’s video analyst, Dan MacFarlane also left.

Finegan and MacFarlane are both from the ACT Brumbies Super 14 franchise.

Attempts to get comment from the Samoa Rugby Union’s officials in Europe were unsuccessful.

"We have received no information from Europe except that Owen Finegan has made his own travel arrangements," said an official at the SRU’s Malifa office.

The Manu Samoa played its last game of its tour of Europe against Italy on Saturday morning. They lost 24-6.

HONIARA, Solomon Islands (Solomon Times, Nov. 30, 2009) – In the Solomon Islands, Solomon Airlines confirmed last week that it has signed a historic agreement to bring a Dash8 aircraft into its Domestic operation from the 7th December and will remain part of its fleet for a longer term.

This aircraft will be leased from Airlines PNG [Papua New Guinea], a privately listed company on the PNG Stock Exchange which was previously owned by the Wild family, long time residents in PNG since the early 50's.

The lease is for a period two (2) years with a further option of two further years subject to the continued expansion of capacity to be equally met by the traffic demand internally.

"The aircraft will give Solomon Airlines the added capacity required to meet the growing trends indicated on its Domestic route and will allow for future capacity expansion to handle larger volumes of Tourism expected in the coming years," an...

SUVA, Fiji (Fijilive, Nov. 30, 2009) - Fiji has not ruled out moving for the suspension of the entire Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER) if signatories to it do not respond "in good faith" to its stated intention to suspend Part 2 of the Agreement.

This was revealed this weekend by state solicitor Luke Daunivalu, who said Government had taken steps to protect Fiji’s interest in light of continuing discussions and negotiations - minus Fiji - by parties to PACER and its subset PACER-Plus.

He was speaking at the 11th Attorney General’s conference held at the Warwick this weekend.

Fiji remains a suspended member of the Pacific Islands Forum and as such cannot participate in any Forum-related meetings or negotiations.

It had tried unsuccessfully to invoke Article 15 of the PACER treaty, which dealt with dispute resolution and required the response "in good faith" of PACER parties.

By Gemma Q. Casas SAIPAN, CNMI (Mariana Variety, Dec. 1, 2009) - THE U.S. Department of Homeland Security replaced the old computer system at the Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands with equipment that gathers a person’s biographical and biometric data through fingerprint and facial scanners which officials described as more technologically advanced than Guam's.

Edward Low, chief officer for public liaison of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said Guam’s equipment will soon be updated.

CBP, an agency under DHS, brought in 42 personnel — four managers and 37 officers — to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to take over from local immigration personnel the administration of the islands’ immigration system on Nov. 28, when the federalization law took effect.

Pacific Islands Report is a nonprofit news publication of the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Offered as a free service to readers, PIR provides an edited digest of news, commentary and analysis from across the Pacific Islands region, Monday - Friday.